Mail catching and ejecting device on railroads.



w. M. BAUM. MAIL CATCHING AND EJECTING DEVICE 0N RAILROADS/ APPLICATION FILED 'AUG- 19, I916.

1,250,268. Patented De0.18,191 7.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I I .um' on Y Amman W. M. BAUM.

V MAIL CATCHING AND EIECTING DEVICE 0N RAILROADS.

APPLICATION man AUG-19,1916.

1,250,268. Pafented D60. 18, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- arromvn To all whom it mdy concern -QWILLIS M.- BAU 'M, oFsAUeUs, CALIFORNIA.

.MAIL chrcnnve Ann EJEcTiNG DEVICE 01v BAIL-ROADS.

Be it known that'I, VILLIS M. Baum, a

citizen of. the United States, residing at Saugus'. in the county of Los' Angelesand State of California, have invented new and useful. Improvements in Mail Catching and Ejecting. Devices on Railroadsfof Which the 1' followin'g is a speicification.

My inventionrelates to improvements in maillcatching and ejecting devices on rail-v roads; and the objects of my' improvem'ents are, to catch andejec'tthe' mail pouches with one and the same operation j to catch and 7 eject the mail pouches automatically With-'- out :a man having to do anyof the operating or even havingto Watch theoperation, elimi- ,natingany and all accidents which With the pen; to ,eliminate the strapping of the becarried in. one pouch; to eliminate the my strikes the 1 door;

pouches'in the. middle allowing more mail to jamming 'andtwisting of the pouches While catching or ejecting them; to make the catching and ejecting 'offmail more safe for the mail clerk as WelLaIsffor any by-standers on a railroad station? to provlde swingably mounted catcher-doors gaging and closingas "solon a's a mail pouch to provid 'e swingably mounted ejecting doors operating" in con junction With'thecatch'er-doors ejecting the mail automatically doorf is operated by invention consisting in. the constructioml combination' fla'nd i hereafter more fully described and claimed,

ns; i 1iw h- Figure 1 is an. outline of arailroadj'c'arf' as soon as the catcherthe incoming mail the arrangement {of devices and illustrated in the. accompanying 'dr'avve with my device attached-to it, in top view. i Fig; 2 is my swinging door in front view. -fFig. 3 is one ofthesupportingarmsof my doors in side View.

. Fig & is the supporting. armjof Fig.

30p V i F 5 is a. corner (it theidoor fining with a lockl secured to it to keep thefilling of the side view. .50

Specification of Letters Patent. 7' Application filed August .19, 1916. Serial No. 115,856.

hingedly connected to may sometimes hapautomatically i disenthe same end of the car onthe oppositefsidesf and the swinging doors 2 and?) constituting an important feature in my device canbei on the opposite sides .onfthe other end oftlie .ing-doors 7 are mounted; on "the; vertical n'gagedwith thesupporting farms, in

Patented Dec i l s is a' horizontal door filling.

section through the arms and operating levers, in top vieyv. Fig. 9 is the engaging pawlandenga'ging lever, in. side View.

Fig. 10 is the door-bottom in top-view,

the supporting armfv of the door. i 1 v p Fig. ll is theen'dvieW of the door-bottom of Fig. 10. i

Fig. 12 is the end viewof the doorbottoia hanging down from the supporting arm. f

Fig. 13 is the mechanism for disengaging the swinging doors, trikes-the door. Fig; 14L isthe side view of Fig.13.

Fig. 15 is a'slight'modification of the toil-i; 1i

nection' between the door-post and the sup porting arms, allowing. the j disengaging of 1 the doors from thedoor-post inp t op yieW. Fig. 16 is the side view of Figjlfi.

Fig. '17 isa netting to be mounted near the railroad tracks, in' side view. H V Fig. 18 is thetopview of Fig. 17

Similar-nlnnbers refer to similar partsf throughout the several views.

r In Fig. 1, the outline l .indicatesfa road car, to Which device is appliedfinopen' (operating) position as indicated at"'12,,

and 'lnlclosed. position as'indicatedjat 3.1:

Thecar-doors at 4 and 5 are of usual'con struction, and it. will easily be "understood that the common doors 4 and 5 ca n 'be on" car. The catcher doors 6 as. well as the'jej'ectef shaft, or door-post 8, To g utili'ze theidoors; of my device for observation purposes, I"

mount the: door fillings .9 removably in the:

door-arms 11, see Fig. 2. In Figs. '3 and 4 the doorarms are shown as. being 10f 'Uf shaped section; but it Will easily be under-E stood that other shapes will be justas suit?" able isuch shapes are chosen t w s h sliding in and removing of the filling '1 h filling can be m d sti t teammates;

8 is the rpost With l i p 'tiilsk f when a mail pouch ,6 5

in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, sheet-metal is used, of which the surfaces may be flat and smooth, or dished on the inner side of the door, as illustrated in Fig. 7. The plate 11 in Fig. 7 will naturally be the outside of the door, while the dished plate is mounted toward the inside of the door, the part 12 is curved more than the rear part 13, to catch the mail pouch and easily direct it into the railroad car. The filling is provided with a lock whereby itcan he secured between two door arms, see Figs. 5 and 6, the lock-bolt 15 bein operated automatically by the spring 16. A projection 17 is provided on the lock bolt 15 whereby the filling can be disengaged from the door arms. A recess 18 in the door arms, see Fig. t, is provided to engage with the lock of the filling. The doors swinging on the door posts are constructed to pass through the outer door-openings 19 in the railroad cars, see Fig. 1, locking against the inner door-frames 20. Between the outer walls of the railroad cars and the inner frames, a hollow space is formed to receive the door-fillings, when slipped out of the door-arms, the door-frames staying thus closed while the door fillings, being shifted into the hollow walls of the railroad cars, free the door-openings for observation or other purposes, as will easily be understood. The door frames are locked within the door openings of the railroad cars by the locks on the door-arms, see Figs. 3 and 4:. A lockbolt 21 is secured to the door-arm which engages with the walls of the railroad cars, a coil spring 22 operating the bolt 21 automatically, while a projection 23 on the lock-bolt is provided to disengage the bolt by hand.

The vertical shaft, or door post 8 is journaled in the boxes 24 and 25, which can be mounted at suitable places in railroad cars. Between the lower box 24 and the lower door arm 11, the operating lever 26 is secured to the door post. In Fig. 8, this operating lever is shown in top view, showing also the engaging pawl 27 engaging with the operating lever at 28. The engaging pawl 27 is on a common shaft 29 with the engaging lever 30, as can be more clearly seen in Fig. 9, where the engaging mechanism is shown in side view. The dotted line 31 in Fig-1 8 indicates the centerline of the closed door, while the door arm 11 is shown in opened position. Opening the door from the closed to the opened position, the heavy spring 32 is compressed by the operating lever 26, and as the spring can be placed in such a position as to allow a further opening movement of the door to a suitable distance far enough that the engaging pawl can be engaged as shown in Fig. 8, it will easilybe understood that the setting of the door is simply done by pushing with the hand against the door and pressing with the foot against the engaging lever 30.

It will furthermore be understood that by pulling on the ejector door 7 the device can be set also, as pushing the catcher-door or pulling on the ejecting-door causes the same motion on the device. And then it will also be understood that, instead of pushing or pulling directly on the doors, levers may be provided by which the doors can be set from a suitable place far enough away from the device to prevent any accident through. untimely operation of the device.

Springs, operating lever and engaging.

pawl can be below the floor of the railroad car, while the engaging lever 30 can be just above the floor. Having engaged the engaging pawl 27 with the operating lever 26 at 28, the hand can be taken away from the door. as the shape of the engaging parts will keep these parts engaged and thereby the door opened until a mail pouch strikes,

the door. A mail pouch striking the door, will compress the heavy spring enough to allow the engaging pawl to be pulled out of engagement by the light spring The operating lever thus disengaged will be operated by the heavy spring 32 tobring the door to the closed position indicated by the center line 31.

To prevent the mail pouches from being caught between the lower end of the door and the car, a bottom plate 34L is hingedly attached to the door arms 11. When the doors are opened, these bottom platesfill the space between the doors and the railroad cars as illustrated in Figs. 10 and 1, while in closed position these bottom plates hang down as illustrated in Figs. 12 and 2.

A slight modification of the door-setting device described in Fig. 3 is illustrated in Figs. 13 and 14. In Fig. 8, the setting mechanism is constructed so that the spring will still allow a slight compression, which is caused by the inrushing mail-pouch, pressing against the catcher-door 6, by which the engaging pawl 27 is allowed to disengage from the operating lever 26, after which the catcher-door close. In Figs. 13 and it the device is set not to allow any further movement of the doors by the inrushing mail pouches. The mail-pouch rushing in from the front edge 35 of the catcher-door hits against a baflie.

plate 36, arranged along the rear edge of the door. The baffle plate is connected with the lever 37 whiclris pivotally mounted on the operating lever 26 at 38 in the middle of the lever 37. While the baflle plate is attached to one end of the lever 37, the other end 39 of this lever is formed to engage with the engaging pawl 27. The operating is free to automatically 55 {.thetrain' by the g of the netting.

7 lever 26 does notengage with the engaging paiwl27 directly, construction. a

ll'isillust'rated in Figs. and'16; While a key is shown in the-Figs. 3, 4, 8, 10 and ,l3, a pin140.is used-as a modified interlock- (high enough to hold ingmeans between the door-post and the door-arms. In this constructiomthe doorarms are turnably-mountedonthe door-post,

} on which a shoulder- 41' isprovided for a support of the arms.

The ejecting door Tie the straight" c'ontin uation of the catcher-door on the opposite side of the door post, see Fig. 1, the catcherdoor reaching up to the top of the side walls of a railroad car and terminating at the 7 lower end at a suitable height above the platform of the railroad station so as not to endanger any person standing on the station 7 while the train 1s passing wlth'open catcher- 2 doors; While the e ecting door reaches down to the floor of the railroad car and is only the usual mail ready for delivery at a certain station, see Fig. 2.

l The delivery of the mail is accomplished at I so the same time when the catcher-door is released by the inrushing mail, as both doors are secured to the same door post. From the Fig. 2 it will also be noticed that above the ejecting door and below the catcher-door there remain parts of a stationary wall, these can also be constructed in the shape of sliding doors, and, in case that the swinging doors-of the device are disengaged to be 'used for common door openings, these slidable stationary Wall sections can be shifted j lnto the hollow walls of the railroad cars in v 40 the same manner as previously described in connection with the swinging doors.

The mail pouches ejected from the ejecting doors are caught in a netting illustrated in Figs. 17 and 18.

If the train is passing in the direction as indicated by the arrow 42 in Fig. 18, the netting will be placed at an angle as illustrated. v

The'netting will also be placed so that the horizontal part 43 will catch the mail pouch, and while the mail pouch is rolling over the horizontal part its motion will be stopped by the sloped part 44. A rebounding of the mail pouch toward the train Will be impossible in this construction, as the mail-pouch will rather be thrown away from position of the sloping part The netting is constructed of the frame I work 45. which is turnably attached toa sta- 6.0

' 44 at 47. The horizontal part being folded toward the sloping part, the whole netting 'in: this slightly modified side of'thefcentral support andforming also 7 anv ejecting-door projecting to the ;:opposite side of the centralaisupport, and setting means suitably attached to the doors adaptsisting of swingably mounted doors' centrally supported and journaled forming thereby a catcher-door and an ejecting-door projecting at opposite sides from the ported and journaled center of the doors,

and operating mechanism suitably attached to the doors adapted to release the doors by the inrushing mail. j

3. The combination with a railroad car of a device for catching and ejecting mail pouches consisting of a swingably mounted door supported and journaled centrally so as to form a catcher-door projecting outwardly from the railroad car and also to form an ejecting door projection to theopposite side into the railroad car, and operating mechanism secured to the railroad-car engaging with the doors holding the doors in operative position adapted to hold the doors in such operative position until inrushing mail releasessuch operating mechanism. r v

4. A device for the purpose described consisting of a turnably mounted door post, a mail catching door secured radially along one side ofthepost, a mail ejecting door secured radially to the post opposite to the, catching door, and setting and operating mechanism suitably attached to the device adapted to hold the doors in opened position.

5. A device for the purpose described consisting of a vertically mounted door post turnably journaled, a catcher door secured vertically to the post projecting radially from the post, an ejecting door also secured vertically to the post opposite to the catcher door, and setting and operatingmechanism suitably attached to the device allowing an automatical closing of the door by the inrushing mail pouches.

6. A mail catching and ejecting device consisting of, centrally supported and journaled doors having the catching door projecting in one direction and the ejecting operating means movably attached to the catching door ea to'hold the doors in operative' position} 1 2. A device for the purpose described con-v 5 device for catching and 10 projecting inwardly into the railroad mail, setting and operating means secured to journaled support connected with the oper ating means on the door.

7. In combination with a railroad car a ejecting mail pouches consisting of catching and ejecting doors centrally mounted on a common door post the catching door projecting outwardly from the railroad car and the ejecting door car, operating mechanism secured to the door post, and locking mechanism secured to the Copies of thispatent may be obtained for railroad car normally engaging with the operating mechanism on the door post, the operating mechanism on the door post projecting upwardly into the path of the inrushing mail pouches.

.In testimony whereof I hereunto aifix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIS M. BAUM.

Vitnesses C. 'h/IITSOHLER, OTTO H. RINEGER.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of-Iatents.

Washington, D. 0. 

